Sharks Win 4-3 Against Flames in Calgary; Couture and Barbanov score key goals

San Jose Sharks’ Alexander Barabanov, center, celebrates his goal against the Calgary Flames with Timo Meier, left, and Tomas Hertl at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary on Tue Mar 22, 2022 (Photo by The Canadian Press via AP)

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks defeated the Calgary Flames 4-3 Tuesday in Calgary. The Sharks are 3-0 against the Flames this season. Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Timo Meier, Alexander Barabanov and Logan Couture scored for the Sharks. James Reimer made 28 saves for the win. Johnny Gaudreau, Dillon Dube, and Mikael Backlund scored for the Flames, Jacob Markstrom made 34 saves in the loss.

After the game, Sharks Head Coach Bob Boughner said:

“As the game went on we got a couple bounces and I think it gave us a little bit of energy. I thought the guys played hard for each other. I thought that we had some energy out of the Gadjovich Viel line. Every time they were one the ice. It took us a while to get going but once we did I thought we played a pretty responsible game. That’s a great team offensively obviously and [Reimer] came up huge at the end with some stops.”

He observed that the circumstances of the game were noteworthy: “Coming into this building after the trade deadline, having guys injured and out of the lineup, Nieto and [Dahlen] and guys like that and some young guys in pretty big roles tonight, I thought it was a great team effort.”

Johnny Gaudreau started the scoring at 4:17 with a power play goal. He stopped the puck with his skate and lifted the puck into the top corner. Assists went to Matthew Tkachuk and Elias Lindholm.

Dillon Dube made it 2-0 at 8:16. Tkachuk kept the puck in and sent it back to the slot where Dube was ready to take a quick shot.

Marc-Edouard Vlasic got the Sharks on the board at 14:54 with shot from the point. He had just kept the puck in and threw it on net. It snuck by Markstrom on the blocker side.

The Sharks had two penalties to kill in the first. They gave up the one goal and allowed two shots. They had one power play that got three shots on goal. The shot count for the period was 14-9 Sharks.

Mikael Backlund scored at 4:08 of the second period, restoring Calgary’s two-goal lead. Johnny Gaudreau took advantage of a neutral zone turnover and carried the puck in two-on-one with Backlund. Gaudreau made the pass across the slot and Backlund took a backhand shot close in to the net.

Gaudreau was awarded a penalty shot at 14:59 after Brent Burns slashed him. Reimer caught the shot in his glove.

Timo Meier trimmed the Flames lead back to one at 17:30. Burns took a shot from above the circle that it a defenseman. The rebound went out to Timo Meier just above the goal line by the boards. His bad angle shot found its way into the net. Assists went to Burns and Alexander Barabanov.

The Flames outshot the Sharks in the second period 12-10. The Sharks had the only power play in the period and got five shots on goal.

Barabanov tied the game at 11:07 of the third, after Tomas Hertl lifted the puck between defenders from behind the net to make a pass to Barabanov. Barabanov was right in front of the blue paint and he lifted it over the goaltender for his tenth goal of the season.

Logan Couture gave the Sharks the lead less than 30 seconds later. Noah Gregor carried the puck to the et and took a shot. Markstrom stopped that but the rebound went to Couture who as following Gregor. Couture’s shot trickled under the goalie for Couture’s 21^st of the season. Assists went to Gregor and Sasha Chmelevski.

Calgary pulled their goaltender with about 90 seconds left but the Sharks held them off. The final shot count was 38-31 Sharks but the Sharks only won 46% of the face-offs.

In the final minutes of the game, Timo Meier left the ice with a lower body injury.

The Sharks next play on Thursday in Edmonton against the Oilers at 6:00 PM PT.

Sharks Light Up Flames, Win 4-1

San Jose Sharks’ Nicolas Meloche (right) plows Calgary Flames’ Mikael Backlund (left) into the boards during the first period at SAP Center in San Jose on Tue Nov 9, 2021 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks started this road trip with a 4-1 win over the Calgary Flames, scoring three times in the third period. Alexander Barabanov, Logan Couture, Tomas Hertl and Jonathan Dahlen scored for San Jose, and Adin Hill made 37 saves for the win. Brent Burns and Adin Hill each earned two assists in the game and Dahlen’s goal tied him for the NHL rookie lead in goals this season. Andrew Mangiapane scored for Calgary and Jacob Markstrom made 22 saves in the loss.

After the game, Sharks Assistant Coach John MacLean talked about what he saw during the third period:

“It’s always fun when you can feel them just kind of, they’re excited to be out there, and going and cheering for one another and blocking shots and cheering for a good change, cheering for getting a puck deep. That’s when you can see them, you know, playing for one another and that when you know you have a shot.”

Sharks Captain Logan Couture talked about goaltender Adin Hill’s performance in the net: “Tremendous, played great. Big saves, a few times there off tips. Always looked composed. I mean, there were a few times when the puck as bouncing around but he was a rock for us tonight.”

In a scoreless first period, the Sharks were out-shot 8-4, despite having two power plays. Two of their shots in the period came on the power play. In the face-off circle, they won just 4 out of 11 draws.

Alexander Barabanov scored the first goal of the game 47 seconds into the second period. Brent Burns made a pass from the Sharks red line to Barabanov on the Flames blue line. Barabanov made a beeline for the net and beat Markstrom with a quick wrist shot. Assists went to Burns and Hill.

Andrew Mangiapane tied it up 20 seconds later through a melee at the net. Assists went to Milan Lucic and Dillon Dube.

There was an official review after the on-ice official called no-goal. The video review reversed the call. The Sharks then challenged the goal for goaltender interference, as it appeared that Milan Lucic had pushed Adin Hill ‘s pad into the net. The challenge failed and the team had to kill their first penalty of the game.

The Sharks were out-shot again, 19-8 in the second period. They also had to kill three penalties, allowing six shots to the Flames power play. In the face-off circle they improved, winning 46% of the draws.

Logan Couture scored the game winner at 4:18 of the third period. He carried the puck over the blue line and took a shot from the boards that went off of a Calgary defender and into the net. Assists went to Santeri Hatakka and Nicolas Meloche.

With just over a minute left, Adin Hill collected the puck behind the net, and passed it to Brent Burns in the corner. Before taking a hit, Burns sent the puck all the way up the ice. He missed the net, but Tomas Hertl won the race, and put the puck in the empty net with a spin around the Calgary defender.

With 41 seconds left, Jonathan Dahlen scored another into the empty net from deep in the Sharks zone.

The Sharks finally out-shot Calgary in the third, 14-11. The Sharks also won 54% of the face-offs in the third period. Tomas Hertl led all skaters with seven shots in the game.

The Sharks play next on Thursday in Winnipeg against the Jets at 5:00 PM PT.

Sharks Best Canucks 4-2; Six game skid comes to an end

photo from sfgate.com: The Vancouver Canucks defenceman Quinn Hughes (left) tries to reach around on San Jose Sharks rightwinger Timo Meier on Saturday night at SAP Center.

By Mary Walsh

SAN JOSE — The San Jose Sharks celebrated Marc-Edouard Vlasic’s 1000th NHL game with a 4-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks Saturday. The win ended a six-game losing streak and no doubt made Star Wars night more fun for the fans at the SAP Center. Sharks goals came from Tomas Hertl, Timo Meier, Evander Kane and Logan Couture. Aaron Dell made 33 saves in the win. Canucks goals came from Jake Virtanen and Bo Horvat with Jacob Markstrom making 23 saves in the loss.

After the game, Marc-Edouard Vlasic confessed that he did not keep the puck from his 1000th game: “No, that was for Bob. I’ll just pick up a random puck and tell everybody it’s 1000 games. Nobody’ll know the difference.” The win was also Bob Boughner’s first as head coach of the Sharks.

Boughner talked later about the work the team is doing: “We got a practice in yesterday so it was nice to get our lines together and work some offensive zone play that we’re trying to establish. I think that both ends of the ice really, we worked on a little different defensive structure.” He also gave credit to his goaltender:

Deller, you know, he was our best player. You know, he made some key saves at key times and, you know, really kept us in it when we were starting to take on water. And that’s what a goalie does in a win like that. I liked the way we played. We played with some poise. Second period we took on too much but, you know, I thought the third period we responded. Even though they were in our zone a little bit, we didn’t have too many let downs and so many break downs in the slot area.

The first goal of the game came at 10:50 of the first. Joe Thornton got the puck from Kevin Labanc and held it while Tomas Hertl went to the net. Vancouver’s Tyler Meyers dropped to block the pass but Thornton sent it behind him, between the prone defenseman and the goaltender to Hertl on the other side of the net. From there, Hertl had an open net to shoot at and he did not miss. It was Hertl’s 12th goal of the season.

The second period was scoreless with Vancouver out-shooting San Jose 12-7. San Jose had two unsuccessful power plays and one successful penalty kill.

A nice outlet pass from Erik Karlsson found Timo Meier in the neutral zone. Couture, Kane and Meier went into the zone three on two. Meier made a pass to Lane, who passed it right back. Meier wound up taking the shot from just above the goal line and it went in off of Markstrom. Assists went to Kane and Karlsson.

Less than a minute later, Adam Gaudette skated through the neutral zone with the puck, found his way around the Sharks defense and managed to make a quick pass to Jake Virtanen in the slot. Virtanen carried it a few strides before taking the shot and beating Dell on the far side. Assists went to Gaudette and Christopher Tanev.

The third San Jose goal came from Evander Kane at 18:39 of the third. After he missed the empty net twice, his team-mates held the zone and got the puck back to him for a third try. He got that one but did not celebrate. Assists went to Logan Couture and Barclay Goodrow.

The Canucks gave some extra weight to that empty net goal at 19:31 with their goaltender pulled again. Quinn Hughes took a shot from the blue line. Dell stopped that but gave up a trickling rebound. Bo Horvat was there to tuck it in the net. Assists went to Hughes and Brock Boeser.

The Canucks pulled their goalie again. A few seconds later, Marc-Edouard Vlasic stole the puck at the Sharks blue line and found Logan Couture with a pass for another shot into the empty net. The time of that goal was 19:52.

The Sharks next play on Tuesday against the Arizona Coyotes at 7:30 PM PT in San Jose.

Sharks Shut Out Canucks 5-0; Dells stops 41 as Couture and Tierney combine for four goals

San Jose Sharks’ Logan Couture (39) scores past Vancouver Canucks goalie Jacob Markstrom during the second period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, Nov. 11, 2017, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

by M. Walsh

SAN JOSE– The San Jose Sharks defeated the Vancouver Canucks by a score of 5-0 Saturday. Sharks goaltender Aaron Dell stopped 41 shots in his second NHL shutout. Tomas Hertl scored first, while Logan Couture and Chris Tierney each scored twice. Vancouver netminder Jacob Markstrom made 26 saves on 29 shots.

The win stood in sharp contrast to the Sharks’ previous game, a 5-1 loss. Of the 5-0 win, Sharks head coach Pete DeBoer said: “It’s a huge divisional game. Deller was our best player, which is, you know, why we have him. He was great and we found a way. ” As the Sharks’ backup goaltender, Aaron Dell has only started four games this season. Of his performance Saturday night, Sharks forward Logan Couture said:

We believe in him in this room. And 40 saves or whatever it was tonight is pretty impressive. He was tracking pucks well, he’s been great every time we put him in so we have a lot of confidence in him.

Tomas Hertl finished the game with a goal and two assists. After the game, Couture said of Hertl:

He’s been good, he’s had so many chances over these past six or seven games where you just figured he was going to get an ugly one and, you know, we need goals so we hope that this is the start of something.

In all, the Sharks scored at even strength, short-handed, into an empty net and on a penalty shot. The only thing missing was a power play goal. Couture described that missing piece as an ongoing source of frustration:

Our power play’s really draining the energy from us. I mean it’s just getting frustrating. Us guys on the power play, we can’t let that happen. We need to create some energy instead of deflating our team.

The Canucks came to San Jose after an unexpectedly good start to their season, winning eight of sixteen games and adding a couple of points for overtime losses. Those 18 points are good for third in the Pacific right now. Their scoring leader is Derek Dorsett, who has met his second best season total in just 16 games. He has seven goals in this his tenth NHL season. His career best was 12 in 2011-12. Second in scoring for Vancouver is Bo Horvat, now in his fourth NHL season. He has six goals, putting him on track to easily eclipse last season’s 20.

The Sharks scored just 48 seconds into the game, a point shot from Justin Braun that went off of Tomas Hertl in front of the net. A second assist went to Melker Karlsson.

At 11:07, Timo Meier had a very good chance during a delayed Canucks penalty. His shot went just under Markstrom’s glove but hit the far post and bounced out. During the power play, the Sharks had just two shots. The powerplay units were Brent Burns, Tim Heed, Logan Couture, Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski, then Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Mikkel Boedker, Joonas Donskoi, Tomas Hertl and Joel Ward.

With 5:06 left in the first, Donskoi drew a hooking penalty to give the Sharks another power play chance. The sharks only mustered one shot during those two minutes, and a few seconds after the power play expired, the Canucks had their own chance with the man advantage. Timo Meier was called for slashing at 17:02. The Canucks bolstered their shot count by four but did not score. Though the Sharks led the Canucks in shots 11-4 in the middle of the period, the Canucks had closed the gap to 14-10 by the end of the period.

The Sharks had a third power play early in the second period, but it was cut short just 37 seconds in by a penalty to Joe Pavelski for hooking. During the four on four, a Brent Burns shot from the blue line hit the top bar and left the defenseman still waiting for his first goal of the year.

The Sharks drew a fourth power play at 9:30 of the second, an interference call against Alex Biega. The Canucks managed to thwart the Sharks on almost every entry, forcing them to mostly dump it in and never get set up. The Sharks did not get a shot on goal in that fourth power play. Brent Burns and Tomas Hertl were able to get in with self-passes off the boards but they were quickly stripped of the puck and sent back out by the penalty killers.

That penalty kill seemed to energize the Canucks and they put pressure on the Sharks for several shifts, racking up shots and wearing out the San Jose defenders. That push took a toll on the Sharks and resulted in a slashing penalty to Joel Ward at 15:30. The power play started with a short-handed chance for Couture and Hertl but Markstrom gloved Couture’s shot away.

That short-handed chance foreshadowed another chance for the same pair just seconds later. Hertl chased the puck down along the boards in the Sharks zone and nudged it in Couture’s direction near the Sharks blue line. Couture had enough speed to evade pursuit and take another shot at Markstrom. This time it went in. Hertl received the only assist.

The Canucks led the Sharks in shots during the second period, 14-6, but the Sharks still had the 2-0 lead where it counts.

The Canucks came out fast and furious in the third, firing five shots on goal in the first two minutes. The shot imbalance evened out as the period went on, until the Sharks scored three times in the final two minutes. Logan Couture scored into an empty net at 18:19. Assists went to Joel Ward and Tomas Hertl.

In the final two minutes, Timo Meier was charged with elbowing and given a five minute major and game misconduct.

With the net still empty, Chris Tierney scored twice in 20 seconds. The first was into an empty net and the second was on a penalty shot. It was his first NHL penalty shot goal.

The Sharks next play on Sunday in Los Angeles against the Kings, at 7:30 PM PT.